T42 is dying in a very suspicious way

[systemBuilder]

My T42 is running Windows-XP, I think it's the original installation of the operating system. Surprisingly, when I inspect the batteries in the battery manager, the machine often locks up. The screen is still there, but the machine stops listening to the keyboard. I tried uninstalling everyhing I could think of - to no avail. Quite surprisingly, holding down the power button for 5 seconds does not power down the machine. I plugged in a few USB devices and there was no notification in the taskbar. It seems to be locked up completely, but the screen is still visible and everything looks beautiful. Any ideas ??

[ajkula66]

Sounds like the early stage of a SouthBridge chip failure to me...